Sebastià Estradé (Sallent, 1923 – 2016) was a lawyer and writer.

With a doctorate in Law and a diploma in industrial and electrical engineering, he was a specialist in space law and obtained a PhD with the thesis El derecho ante la conquista del espacio (Law and the Conquest of Space, 1964), which was supervised by Doctor Wernher von Braun, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. In 1972 he received the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Space Journalism Award. He wrote fictional and educational works on astronautics. His first book was the short story collection Una guerra civil (A Civil War, 1961) and he has also written science fiction for young people in both Catalan and Spanish with titles including Més enllà no hi ha fronteres (Beyond There Are No Borders, 1966), El planeta que podía ser santo (The Planet That Could Be Holy, 1967), Genestel (1971), El planeta Siva (The Planet Siva, 1972), Una ciudad en el infierno (A City in Hell, 1973), Climber (1987), A l’espai no hi volem guerra (In Space We Don’t Want War, 1993), and Quan tornis, porta una mica de pluja (When You Return Bring a Little Rain, 1996). He also wrote popular science books like De la terra a l’infinit (From Earth to Infinity, 1966), Astronáutica (Astronautics, 1970), Reto al espacio (Challenge in Space, 1973), and Balance de la investigación espacial (Report on Space Research, 1974). Moreover, he has published such educational titles as Estimeu el vostre entorn (Love Your Surroundings, 1982), winner of the 1984 Serra d’Or Critics’ Prize (category of Literature Young People), and Con buena educación (With Good Manners, 2004). His last published work is the short story collection De tants colors (Of So Many Colours, 2006).

Sebastià Estradé wrote columns for the press and worked with television and, between 1992 and 1996, was president of the Space and Aeronautics Law section of the Barcelona College of Lawyers.

He was a member of honour of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Catalan Language Writers – AELC).



Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Photograph: © Enric Badia / Regió7.
Translated by Julie Wark.